Players and management will learn from mistakes

Latics assistant manager writes every week for Chron Sport
OUR first season in football management has been one of ups and downs and on the whole, it is disappointing to have finished up where we have in terms of our final league position.

Comparing where we were at one stage, up in the play-offs, to how we finished in 17th spot in npower League One, we would have hoped to have ended up higher.

But it has definitely been a major learning experience for us and we gained a lot of knowledge about the players we have had here during the campaign.

At times, as a coaching staff, we have been naive — and not just on the footballing side of things, either.

On the field, there is definitely no substitute for experience and you can see that most of the top sides with the biggest budgets have got that in spades.

We probably lacked that know-how at times. Though our young players gave a good account of themselves, the fact that many of them hadn't played much football at this level meant that they didn't have the knowledge that you sometimes need to close down games and pick up results.

What we have found is that most teams in League One, including ourselves, have tried to play good football.

With those teams at the top especially, when you have good quality players there is no point just hoofing long balls from back to front.

Looking at the make-up of the division for next season, it will be a big test for us.

Preston, Sheffield United and Scunthorpe are coming down and with Chesterfield and Bury gaining promotion to our league there will be a lot of games with far more local interest than there were in 2010-11.

There could be more yet, depending on the outcome of the League Two play-off competition.

It certainly helps to add some spice to matches when we are playing clubs in and around our local area.

Hopefully, another effect it will have will be to increase our home crowds, which is something we definitely need to do to help the club be successful.